This is just me rambling about thoughts on personality and our minds, keep note I'm not under the influence of any drugs right now, I've just never once discussed psychological material nor taken a psychology class, so please feel free to respond with your input...

My belief is, in the society we live in today (for example, in the average citizen, starting from early childhood development, the basic education system, colleges and universities, labor and occupations, all the way to retirement), every miniscule thing that happens to an individual during the course of his life and every experience that individual encounters, will and/or will not in some respect (impossible to fully determine) have an accumulative impact on the personality of that person (including intellect and thought-process). Many say that it is not only the environment that shapes our personality and ultimately our lives, but the genetic inheritance we receive from our parents. Or, could it be, the reason we can relate to our parents in many aspects is that we were raised by them, and their personality simply rubbed off on us, just as society and the environment had? This is what I think the case is; genetic inheritance as a cause for passing personality traits seems to be unlikely to me (until I see hard evidence that can convince me otherwise). Anyways, whether that person becomes highly successful in life or reaches their fate on the streets as a hobo, there must have been influences that built on that person throughout his/her life to construct the personality that is exhibited at present-day.

One hypothetical theory I'd like to bring to question is this. Assume a child, born directly into the slums of Detroit, was shaped by a very low-class family who was raised in the same city and the child lived there for 14 years. Later, he was seperated from his family to live a [hopefully] better life in Oregon with a wealthy family (let's just assume he has no emotions towards the separation of his family just for the sake of eliminating confounding variables). With him, he takes the knowledge of his past, and considering the harsh area and family he grew up with, it consisted of an overwhelming series drugs, violence, and generally rebellious behavior. How might the individual (on his own) naturally change the way he was raised upon to simply conform to a completely foreign system (I would assume rebellion and years of struggle if no therapy or medication is assigned)? A complex series of psychological entanglements had poisoned the child's personality. In theory, we each can have full control of our mental state of mind and thought processes, but some say that personality is integrated and will remain forever in some degree, such as whether or not you are an abstract or concrete thinker, factual or theoretical, etc. What do you think of a situation like this? Is the child truly plagued for the rest of his life (assuming he never seeks out help, only by living with his guardians and in the new district?

This post was edited by obbywan on Dec 11 2008 02:15am

Ahh, the age-old "Nature vs. Nurture" conflict. Many, many psychologists have debated this. It is known that we gain some traits of our personality genetically. These are proven by separated twin studies. However, other aspects of personality are caused by the environment. By studying adoption studies, we see that children are more likely to act like their adopted parents. This is also true with accents; kids are more likely to pick up the accents and language/speaking habits of their friends rather than their families once they start school.

As for you scenario, I think the intense psychological shock of being taken/pushed away from his family would be more than enough to send him into some kind of depression. That point aside, the child will retain aspects of both culture and lifestyles. I hope it's not weird, but I'm going to use my dog as an example. We always adopt our dogs. One of our dogs, Whiskers, was adopted into our family when she was four. By then, she had already learned to fear humans. She still cowers whenever she sees us, but she is not much more likely to approach us (she's eight now). Also, we have a bowl of dog food always on the floor. Even though we never let it get empty, we always see Whiskers trying to "bury" the food with her head even though there is no dirt or anything around with which to bury the food. By now she would have realized that the food is always there, but she still feels the need to try and hoard/hide it for later.

It all comes down habits that become integral to life and habits that can be relearned or modified. The situation changes on a case-by-case basis, really.

As someone who's taken about 30 college credits of psychology (2 years of study), I think its truly based on the experiences you go through. I mean you see it every day, kids that a rough upbringing having tendencies to be a lot more reckless in their actions, and are statistically more inclined to that type of behavior. Don't get me wrong there's always the exception to the rule, but I agree with Chaos the situation does change on a case-by-case basis because it IS that unpredictable.

I think think genetics sets up a kind of "base" for behaviour and for behavioural response to the environment. Even your vision changes how you think. But personality is a widely social phenomenon, even though brain chemistry and genetics are both involved. There's a very complicated interplay that goes on between genetics and the other ways we learn, adapt and add to the world. We're more or less stuck with our genetics, but we can even change some genetic factors that go into how we interact with the world. A specific way at looking at personality is to see how it changes with sleep, diet (including drugs and sunlight, which are part of the body's diet in a broader sense) and learning (especially engaged, challenging learning that promotes plasticity of neurons and changes in neuronal activity). We can alos look at how our habits change. Addiction and obsession-compulsion (the latter can potentially be cured, explained at the * below) are special cases, where genetics play a larger role, but if you have a habit and you want to lose it, try to replace it with another habit for about 2-3 weeks and see if the old habit comes back. If it does, you may have an addiction and not just a bad habit. But replacing old habits with new ones generally works, so long as it occupies the same perceived need.

Your personality is influenced by both genetics and the environment, but your brain and body are original to you, so you can actually change your genetics to some extent (not all of your genetics, but certain things related to your personality). It's very important to pay attention to the fact that you can think new thoughts and change the world. Yes, you rely on your genetics and experience to do this, but you have choice and ability, and this means your personality isn't wholly determined. In fact, people who tend to think in novel ways tend to have more dynamic personalities, and they tend to be more intelligent, than average. And what's really cool is that even if someone doesn't tend to think in new ways (especially imaginatively), by trying to think in new ways after conscously and programmatically deciding to do so, a person can not only alter his or her personality, but he or she can widen its range and bcome more intelligent (physically, this can mean changes in the brain like increased neural connections, chemical changes affecting mood, and even changes of activity and size in some areas of the brain). However, the opposite can happen if someone smokes, drinks heavily, takes (even some prescription) drugs, doesn't exercise, or doesn't challenge his or her mind. More reason to eat well, rest, exercise, read, learn new things, think postively, etc These things also change your brain lifespan and your overall longevity.

*Fixing obsession-compulsion: ins ome disorders, there's no fix, but for minor disorders, if you simply change how you think about something, it will actually be manifested in the plasticity of your neurons. So say that you wake up at night and feel the need to make sure you turned off the oven. Every time you try to do it, tell yourself, especially aloud, "I don't need to do this , because my fear isn't real. I won't set the house on fire and I know better". In most cases, after a few days or weeks, you won't do it anymore.

Is it an established society or an emergent society? Obviously it is an emergent society and our environment dictates our reality which is shaped by personal experiences that are interprited by the individuals thats experience them. In the example you gave with the child who experienced trauma in his upbringing, I believe he is not poisoned by his experiences and instead he is enlightened by them. He may be prone to make the same mistakes that he saw other peole make growing up, but generally he will emerge stronger rather than weaker just as the emergent society promotes.

Whatever doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger.

Then how would one explain the people who have post-traumatic issues from their time in the military? Wouldn't seeing so many awful things just make them stronger by your explanation?

Cool.

Obviously they're not strong enough to deal with the mental effects of war.

See: Noam Chomsky

you know what you are talking about, i appreciate you writing.

yes it is about nature and nuture, and the environment is taking a great part in our personality, but genetics have a larger influence than you stated.

why? i will just state a few genetic diseases that will affect your personality:

schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, alzheimer, parkinson, depression and such sometimes only one mutation would leads to these disease

moreover, emotions (Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, Anger) are innated in our gene for maximum survival,

but yes, you re right that environmental takes a great part because of our synaptic plasticity